WASHINGTON (AP) -- Scientists say they are a step closer to developing materials that could render people and objects invisible.

Researchers have demonstrated for the first time they were able to cloak three-dimensional objects using artificially engineered materials that redirect light around the objects.

Previously, they only have been able to cloak very thin two-dimensional objects.

The findings, by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, are to be released later this week in the journals Nature and Science.

The new work moves scientists a step closer to hiding people and objects from visible light, which could have broad applications, including military ones.

People can see objects because they scatter the light that strikes them, reflecting some of it back to the eye.

Cloaking uses materials, known as metamaterials, to deflect radar, light or other waves around an object.

Metamaterials are mixtures of metal and circuit board materials such as ceramic, Teflon or fibre composite.

I'm sure by now, you've heard about the Unitarian Church shooting in Knoxville: An unemployed and angry 58-yr-old man on government aid walked into a children's production of Annie at the local Unitarian church and opened fire on the 200-person audience. Two people were killed, 8 wounded.

As the AP, CNN, and so on have reported, the motivation was unemployment and hatred of "the liberal movement": "It appears that what brought him to this horrible event was his lack of being able to obtain a job, his frustration over that, and his stated hatred for the liberal movement," Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen IV told reporters on Monday.... Yet another rendition of, "I am unhappy, so I'm going to blame it on other people, focus my anger on them, and KILL THEM ALL. I'll die as a martyr and take those bastards down with me."

He transferred his frustration to someone irrelevant, seeing innocent people as part of a group that had done him a horrible wrong. But the next slice of the CNN article is really worth a second (or even third) read:

Authorities also discovered a letter from the state government telling Adkisson he was having his food stamps reduced or eliminated, police said.

"He did express that frustration, that the liberal movement was getting more jobs," Owen said. "And he felt like he was being kept out of the loop because of his age."

So this man who focused his wrath on "the liberal movement" was a recipient of government aid AND felt he was a victim of age discrimination.

Did he think that non-liberal Americans supported equal-opportunity laws for older people? Did he think that low-tax Americans were in favor of feeding him when he was poor and unemployed?

No, clearly, his idea is that the "liberal movement" worked to snatch jobs away from white males and dole them out to women and minorities, and, since he did not consider himself to be a minority, he considered himself to be a victim of this practice. And at the same time, he considered himself to be a victim of age discrimination, never connecting the dots between "the liberal movement" and anti-age discrimination efforts.

He demonized the one one subsection of society that wanted to help him- the liberal, progressive idealists that sought to feed the needy and help older people find jobs and fight discrimination. He turned his frustration with his life and economic situation into wrath against peaceful people who only wanted to support and protect him in his doubly-vulnerable state as an unemployed, nearly-60, financially needy individual. This is leaps and bound beyond the factory worker accusing illegal immigrants and foreign countries of stealing good ol' American jobs; but it's an extension of the same thought process.

This man does not understand socio-economic issues. He only understands the simple, rote bias that he was taught, with a sense of victimhood and martyrdom thrown into the mix. If he lived in Pakistan; he would have been recruited as a terrorist, but he lived in the US, so he shot up a congregation full of innocent people just down the road. It's this ignorance and misdirected anger that we need to focus on spotting and treating if we don't want to continue to see people walking into malls, schools, churches, and office buildings with loaded guns and irrational minds. And if we can slow or stop it here, maybe we'll have found a way to deal with it abroad.

And a note from Eddie Izzard: So the National Rifle Association says that guns don't kill people, people do, but you know? I think the gun helps. I think it helps. I think, just standing there, going "BANG!"... that's not going to kill too many people, now is it?